Vacuum tube technology has been gaining influence on the Turkish market. Between 2007 and 2011, its share among the newly installed collector area in the country increased from 4 to 28%, according to the market statistics of Hakan Alas, General Manager of Ezinç Metal. Since the government raised the import tax on vacuum tubes in July 2011, Turkey’s industry has undergone some thorough restructuring. Only one month later, seven of the nation’s solar thermal system suppliers teamed up in an effort to construct their own vacuum tube manufacturing unit. Together, the companies will invest around Turkish Lira 10 million (EUR 4.2 million) in the factory building, including Chinese machinery. The site’s initial capacity is said to be 4.5 million vacuum tubes per year (Photo: Kaisun).

Last year, the Polish solar thermal market exceeded all expectations. While Poland became one of the fastest growing markets in Europe, the installed collector area grew by 70 % to 248,000 m² (174 MWth), according to Aneta Więcka, solar thermal market expert at the Institute for Renewable Energy (IEO). Więcka presented these and other figures at the 5th Solar Energy Industry Forum, which took place in Cracow, mid-April.The Association of Manufacturers and Importers of Heating Appliances (Polish acronym: SPIUG), however, thinks that the IEO estimate may be too high and assumes a two-digit growth rate about 30 to 35%.

There is now one more solar process heat installation in the US – and it is one of the country’s largest too. Since April 2012, 84,000 ft2 of collector area (7,804 m2) supply an estimated 100,000 gallon (378,541 litres) of hot water per day. The water is used in the turkey processor’s company in St Pauls, North Carolina. The contractor and owner of the solar thermal system is FLS Energy, one of the major developers of commercial solar thermal installations in the US.

About one year ago, a German system provider in the field of surface technology, Eisenmann AG, and German Ritter XL Solar GmbH, a company specialised in large-scale solar thermal installations, joined forces to form the "Green Alliance“. Its aim was to promote solar process heat, especially in paint plants. Now, the alliance has given its first fruits: the joint venture has got its first order for a 400 m² solar thermal plant at Zehnder Group, Switzerland.

Internationally operating Haier Group, the world’s fourth largest appliance manufacturer, has caused quite a stir prior to the IFH/Intherm (Trade Fair for Sanitation, Heating, Air Conditioning, Renewable Energies ), which took place in Nuremberg, Germany, at the beginning of April. The fax that the Chinese group’s German sales office, Haier Deutschland GmbH, had sent to plumbers and distributors in Southern Germany showed a bargain price of EUR 666 for an entire solar thermal hot water system.

The famous beer brand Heineken has just placed an order for three big solar thermal plants with a total of 7,270 m² collector area that will produce the heat required for the brewery’s industrial processes at different company sites. Two of these systems will be installed at breweries – one in Valencia, Spain, and one in Göß, Austria - and one will be set up at a malting plant in Vialonga, Portugal. The systems are part of the four-year EU project Solar-Brew, which receives EUR 2.6 million from the FP7 programme of the EU.